1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a massaging apparatus comprising two rollers which are each rotatable about one of two mutually parallel spaced-apart roller axes, these rollers being placeable onto the skin of a person with their circumferential surfaces, at least one roller being rotationally drivable in a given direction of rotation when the massaging apparatus with its two rollers is moved over the skin of a person in a given operating direction which extends transversely to the roller axes. The massaging apparatus comprises a suction chamber in the area of the two rollers, this suction chamber enclosing a suction space and is open in its area which faces a person's skin when the rollers are applied to the skin of a person, and communicating with a pump via an air-transfer line, the pump --with the rollers applied to the skin of a person--generating a partial vacuum in the suction chamber in order to form a skin fold which is drawn into the suction chamber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such a massaging apparatus of the type defined in the opening paragraph is known, for example, from the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,368 A. In this known massaging apparatus, both the roller drive motor of the roller drive device and the pump, i.e., the pump motor, are switched on by means of a hand-operated electrical switch provided on the massaging apparatus. A consequence of this for the operation of the known massaging apparatus is that the massaging apparatus is moved to and fro on a person's skin immediately after it has been placed onto the skin because the rollers of the massaging apparatus are constantly driven by the roller drive device upon actuation of the electrical switch, but there is not yet a vacuum in the suction chamber when this movement begins and, as a consequence, no massaging action is obtained with the known massaging apparatus when this movement begins. Since it takes a comparatively long time before a minimum value of the vacuum in the suction chamber is reached, a comparatively long period of time without any massaging action at all will elapse after the known massaging apparatus has been placed onto a person's skin. As a result of the above situation, the efficiency of the known massaging apparatus is not entirely satisfactory and certain areas of the body of a person can, in practice, not be massaged properly, i.e., towards the heart.